I'm going into my third winter with this car. I put Firestone Winterforce tires on this time and they have excellent dry road manners up to 70mph. I've used Nokias for years but they're pricey. The Firestones have a heavier casing than the Altimax Artics I have on the Jetta. They seem less sloppy and are quieter as well. The after-glow timer for the glow plugs is working great. I've stopped pursuing the mileage quest since I ran out of fuel 2x on the way to work. I fell short of a 900 mile tank. I had been pushing every one to the very bottom of reserve. I set the IP timing back to .90mm because I just have to mess with it and it's been a while.

Yeah these engines really like to run hot. The warmup kills fe. And winter fuel. I run Power Service all winter to help boost cetane and help starts. I run 250ml per tank, or about double what the bottle recommends.

chaloux wrote:Yeah these engines really like to run hot. The warmup kills fe. And winter fuel. I run Power Service all winter to help boost cetane and help starts. I run 250ml per tank, or about double what the bottle recommends.

And 50mpg with quattro is amazing. Congrats!

I use Power Service x2 amount as well every tank + 5 oz of 2-stroke oil to keep the 12mm plunger happy.

The Glacier Blue has been on the road for 4 years and 44,000 miles last week. It runs excellent, starts crisp on the first revolution every time. The last 3 tanks were over 50 mpg; zero oil consumption @ 5k oil changes. The body is at 212k and has remained rust free, the solid Delrin+Acetron CA bushings are a little noisy sometimes; the tire wear is even. The bushings and the manual rack have a stiff, firm, but quick, steering feel I will never give up. I still hear and feel some driveline noise with the solid SF bushings, etc. I'm used to it. The stock muffler’s now on; the Stebro is back on the ’89 black 80. This car has been very reliable, 800 miles per tank every fill up. Today was 16.54 gal. for 824 miles = 49.93mpg that included some city driving. Rich

The right front wheel bearing has lifted its voice above the regular background noise to gain my full attention. I was pretending it was the cold weather, noisy snow tires, solid everything bushings, etc. for about week now. I got down to it this afternoon. I ordered some wheel bearing removal tools because my local machine shop has disappeared since I last looked. We will see how it works out later in the week. I changed the oil yesterday; engine has now 50k.

I turned 55 in February and retired 2 months ago after 32 years working for the State of New York. I definitely now have more time on my hands to finish projects. This morning I installed an AAZ K14 turbo rebuilt with a billet compressor wheel. It pulls very smoothly to the 20psi MBC setting. The car runs perfect every start, has 55k on it since its 2012 creation. I am now running195/60-15s for the first time and they are not too heavy for the manual rack. I used 185/60-15s previously. No difference in steering effort; car handles much better. I’m using a set of really straight Speediness from dean16v. I drive the car daily still, mostly just to different hiking trailheads here in the Catskills. The black Shady 80 is coming back into driving circulation and eventually will get a 1.6TD or the ALH motor way down the line. The fuel mileage hit a new high of 51.8 mpg yesterday; 15.8 gallons in 819 miles. I adjusted the pump timing back to .905mm which makes it less noisy. The car has 225,000 now. I’m ordering a CQ master cylinder to match the G60s finally. Anybody know if I need to adjust the pushrod or should it bolt right in?

So I put 50,000 miles on this car in 5 years driving on poor Upstate NY roads and have now have found time to address some suspension changes that were long overdue. All struts were disassembled, control arms, solid subframe bushings, front tie rods, trans/rear diff mounts removed. Here’s what I found. All four 034 diff/trans mounts rear had separated and collapsed. Delrin CA bushings were still functional but getting pretty loose.The left top motor mount nut was loose allowing some engine vibration/movement. Tie rod ends were very stiff, right front ball joint had play. Right rear tie rod bolt was loose at the subframe. One subframe bolt head broke off because it welded itself to the upper aluminum subframe mount. I dropped the SF and grabbed the mount with the stud sticking out of it with large slip joint pliers and just unscrewed it from the body.(Whew) The Mount Savers I installed were perfect; all mounts were completely intact. I knew my initial spring choice was too stiff for my current needs. Everything went back together well. I used a 10 ton press for the front CAs mounts and a 3 ton arbor press for the rears. Removed newly rebuilt turbo leaking oil from poor welds on drain tube and fixed(?) it with epoxy. I also improved the airbox intake connection. What fun it was torquing the control arm bolts with the car on the ground. The car gets aligned on Wednesday but driving it around the yard feels like a completely different animal; no clunks, it sits lower and is extremely quiet. I might put the radio back in it. lolParts:4 x OEM Transmission mounts2 x front tie rods2 x front ball jointsLeft front swaybar link Power Flex front and rear subframe bushingsOEM front and rear control arm bushingspowder coated strut tops stock front springscoupe rear springs3 liters G 050 for gearbox3 liters 75w90 for rear diff.